Miscellaneous

Boat Lettering

Vessel Name -- 8" high x 36" wide (navy blue). Font is Goudy LT Handtooled.

Hailing Port -- 4" high x 28" wide (navy blue)

Boot Stripe

Z*Spar 64 Medium Green. Also used to paint the cove stripe. (2007)

Bottom Paint

West Marine CPP-Plus black over red. It takes five quarts to paint the bottom with one coat.

I put on a barrier coat of Woolsey Gold in 1999. Incredibly hard stuff. To get the bottom paint to stick, Pettit recommended "scratch sanding", i.e., leave scratch marks, with 80-grit paper.

The boot stripe gets painted after the bottom paint

Bridge Deck

After getting pooped a few times and one knockdown, I decided to build a proper bridge deck in the cockpit. Here's a few photos and words describing the process.

Cleaners

Cleats

Bow mooring cleats: 10", 4 5/16" bolts each, backing plates of 6" x 4"

Stern mooring cleats: 10", 4 5/16" bolts each, backing plates of 4½ x 4"

Main halyard cleat: 7", 2 bolts

Jib halyard cleat: 7", 2 bolts

Cockpit Cushions

Recovered the BottomSiders (see below) with Phifertex PLUS #1243 Grey Sand. On the cushion bottoms, I stitched on some carpet non-skid material.

Bought BottomSiders (May 2000). They work nicely, but there are a few issues with them:

• They shrink in size when left out in the sun. The original tight fit is no longer there. My best guess is that over 3' they shrunk in length about 1".
• They stain easily with air pollution dirt. Mine are very dingy looking (2004).
• They are very slippery when wet.
• They don't stay put very well when the boat is heeling.

According to BottomSiders, they recommend trying to clean the stains with Tilex or a solution of 25% bleach, 25% vinegar, and 50% water. Before talking with them, I tried mineral spirits (no effect) and MEK (cleaned it instantly, but softened the covering paint). Krylon also makes a spray (Revitalizing Vinyl Spray) that may work for recoating the cushions.

Cushions

Some notes on building interior cushions:

Foam

• I used 2045 foam for the cabin seats and 1234 for the seat backs. The 2045 number is a density of 2.0 lbs./ft³ and a compression of 45 lbs. The 1234 number is a density of 1.2 lbs./ft³ and a compression of 34 lbs.
• The settee seats are 5" thick and the settee backs are either 2" or 3", depending on the location.
• I added 1/2" to each side of the cushion compared to the template.dimension. For example, if the template's dimensions are 24" x 36", adding 1/2" to all sides makes it 25" x 37".

Sewing

• Make the top and bottom plates the same size as the foam (i.e., no seam allowance).
• Make the boxing the foam thickness plus 3/8" added to each edge. Most sources say to use 1/2", but I found that it looked better with a 3/8" allowance.
• For all sewing, use a 1/2" seam allowance. For the plates, this will mean that the final product is a little less tall than the foam material.
• For the zipper boxing, make it the same width as the standard boxing, plus the width of the zipper tape. The #5 zipper width is 1
  1/8" and the #10 zipper width is 1 1/2". The zipper plate is then cut in half lengthwise and a strip of boxing is sewn on to each side of the zipper tape.
• I use alligator clips to hold the material together while I'm sewing. Staples also work, but they are a pain in the ass to remove afterward, especially if one gets buried in the seam. I bought 10 alligator clips from Digikey and they're more than enough for any project. Radio Shack probably also has them. Just remember to get large ones.

Deck Leaks

Strange places for deck leaks that I've solved:

• Deck scupper screw holes. Some of the drilled screw holes penetrated through the fiberglass. The screws were not bedded in anything, and water leaked through the bottom of the hole. I bedded the screws in 3M 101 and stopped the leaks.
• Deck scupper. One one of the scuppers, there was a 1" x 1" x ½" void around a screw hole. again, water leaked into the void and then leaked through a crack in the glass out of the fiberglass tube and into the quaterberth. I filled the void with West System epoxy/404 and stopped the leaks.
• Port side coaming. The edge where the coaming and the fiberglass deck meet was leaking and running along the headliner into the quarterberth. I dug out the old bedding compound, carved a groove all down the length, and filled it with 3M 101. I used masking tape to give a good edge to it. This stopped the leaks.
• The piano hinges for the cockpit lockers were leaking through all the screw holes, There was not any bedding compound  sealing the screw holes. I rebedded everything and the leaks stopped.

Standard Operating Procedure for deck hardware:

• Remove any core wood from around screw holes
• Back-fill with an epoxy mixture with thickener
• Counter-bore deck to make a small concave area at the top of the screw hole. I use a conical grinding bit in the drill. This forms a gasket with the caulk around the screw instead of being squeezed out.
• Use 4200 for bedding, including all the screw threads
• Tighten it down
• Clean up with mineral spirits. Don't use acetone -- it stops the 4200 from fully curing.

Dodger

Dodger made by Shadetree Canvas, Baltimore MD (2004). The Sunbrella colors are #11 (4611 or 6011) Sea Spray for the body and #37 Forest Green for the binding tape (3/4" width).

MOB pole flag cover is 28" x 3" diameter Sunbrella.

Dorade Boxes

Cowls are 4" wide at the base (threaded) and 12" high. The scoop opening is 8.5" in diameter. The base it screws into is 7" in diameter.

Drill Bit Kit

I created a drill bit kit for the bits needed for tapping and clearance bits. The bits are stored in a roll-up pouch. The following table shows the bits used for each bolt/screw size (coarse size, only):

Edson Pedestal Steering

Pedestal is 3½" in diameter (the new ones are 4")

Quadrant is held on with four 3/8" x 1¼" stainless steel bolts with lock washers

Lube cable with 30W oil on rag, while feeling for snags. Lube needle bearings on hub with Super Lube.

Spares on Willow:

May, 2002 -- rebuilt the steering system (see Gotchas!). Replaced sheave bushings, sheave pins, wire, and chain.

Emergency Tiller Access - A Nicro Marine 4" deck plate (metal)

March, 2009 - rebuilt pedestal and steering system (including painting pedestal with Interlux Perfection). For the Edson tiller arm for the autopilot, the clevis pin is 12mm (not 0.50") by 40mm usable length. Can't find a spare, so I have in my spares a 12mm partially-threaded bolt and 12mm nuts.

Ensign

Flag is 24" x 36". Flag is seized to the mizzen topping lift.

Fabrics

The following fabrics and supplies are used on Willow:

Fenders

2 10.5" x 30" hunter green Super Gard from Taylor Made (2011)

2 18" diameter Taylor Made

1 Fender Board

Fiberglass

Foredeck - cored with balsawood. Thickness is ¾". The main support in the center of the deck is 1 5/8" thick with wood (not end-grain) core.

Hull thickness in the bilge area at the engine water intake - ¾"

Lockers (Hidden)

Under the liferaft is a small locker that contains a spare water (coolant) pump, a fuel transfer pump, and a spare propane regulator.

Solar Vent

Nicro 3" Day/Night Solar Vent (model N20703S). 700 CFH. New 11/2009. Old one failed after nine years.

Squirt Bottles

Used for acetone, mineral spirits, and distilled water. I use squeeze bottles from McMaster-Carr (4034T45). 16 oz.

West System Epoxy

Figures are for a mixture with the consistency of "peanut butter"

To figure out how much epoxy to use, the following equation from Gougeon can be used:

Gallons (mixed) = A * (0.0075 + 0.00085 * W)

where
    A - surface area in square feet (ft²)
    W - fiberglass weight in ounces